ROMAN Post I

The Roman World

In 509 B.C. the Romans vowed never again to be ruled by a monarch and established a democracy.

Censors became very powerful magistrates in the Roman Republic
The Romans also established units of non-citizens called auxilia.

Today, the Forum's ruins stand as monuments to the grand style of Roman architecture.

 Praetors were elected to help the consuls and formed much of the civil law in Rome.

Roman Expansion

Carthage - powerful city on the north African coast, was a great commerical power that Rome feared would control the Mediterranean.

Spartacus - a Roman slave, led a revolt in 73 B.C. in which more than 70,000 slaves took part.

Trade within Rome's empire created a class of business people and landowners called equities

Historians call the conflicts between Carthage and Rome the  Punic Wars

Rome defeated Macedonia in 197 B.C., for they had allied with Carthage during the Second Punic War

The Roman World

Marc Antony helped Caesar's grandnephew, Octavian, inherit Rome and ruled with him in the Second Triumvirate.

Some senators, including two of Caesar's friends, formed a conspiracy and killed Caesar in the Senate on the Ides of March.

Together, the Five Good Emperors - Nerva, Trajan, Hadrian, Antoninus Pius and Marcus Aurelius - ruled Rome well for almost 100 years.

Caesar, Licinius Crassus, and Gnaeus Pompey formed a political alliance called the First Triumvirate in 60 B.C.

 The reign of Augustus began a period of Roman peace.

The Roman World

As a result of this extended peace, the Romans made great cultural advances.

Gladiators were trained fighters and their fights most often ended in death.

Over time, Roman religious beliefs were increasingly influenced by Greek thought.

The Ptolemaic system was accepted for almost 1,500 years.

Tacitus expressed his criticism of the government set up by Augustus in Annals.


The Roman World Today the Trinity is a central belief of Christians.

Many Christians became martyrs - people put to death for their beliefs.
The Latin word "pope" means "father" in English. Any decisions made by the pope were equivalent to those coming directly from the disciples, who had received their authority from Jesus.
Many people turned to Christianity in the times of trouble that followed the reign of the Five Good Emperors, and soon the sect became too large for the government to punish all its members.

Better church organization and the Declaration of Constantine also helped establish Christianity and stabilize the church.

The Roman World
Huns nomadic people from central and southwestern Asia, posed an ever-growing threat to Rome in the late empire.

nflation, a rise in prices caused by a decrease in the value of money, became so severe that people stopped using money.

 Growing divisions between the rich and the poor, a loss of values, and a loss of patriotismare social explanations of why the empire fell.

Vandals a Germanic tribe, proved to be a serious threat and sacked Rome around A.D. 455.

Although the A.D. 476 overthrow of Romulus Augustulus is often seen as the "fall" of the Empire, the empire in the East remained until A.D. 1453.